EXCLUSIVE: Apple likely to garner 5.5% market share in India in 2022

Shipping a record 5.4 million units of iPhones in India in the calendar year 2021, and 2.2 million in the festive quarter (Q4) alone, Apple registered a stellar year last year. While Apple closed CY 2021 with a 4.4 per cent market share of the Indian smartphone market, a significant jump of 2.4 per cent share in CY 2020, Apple is anticipated to capture a 5.5 per cent market share in CY 2022.

Prabhu Ram, Head of Industry Intelligence Group at CMR told Business Today: “In 2022 and beyond, Apple will further build on its recent India momentum. With deepening iPhone assembly in India, the opening of Apple-owned flagship retail stores and Apple’s aggressive marketing initiatives, Apple will make further in-roads in the premium smartphone market. We, at CyberMedia Research, potentially see Apple achieving a 5.5 per cent market share, with iPhone shipments hovering around 7.5 million mark in CY2022. We believe Apple is on track for a record year ahead, especially with the potential launch of iPhone SE 2022 edition in H1 2022, and its broadest iPhone portfolio across price tiers.”

Over the last few years, the industry dynamics have changed. Firstly, in India, the premium smartphone market is on a strong growth curve, growing almost 90 per cent YoY in 2021. According to CyberMedia Research, one in every eight smartphones sold in 2021 was a premium smartphone.

Secondly, Apple has always been an aspirational brand in India but the high price tag of iPhones restricted many from buying one. Over the last couple of years, consumers have had a wide range of iPhones to choose from at different price points. For instance, the 2020 iPhone 12 was available for as low as Rs 34,999 during sales with additional discounts. And the iPhone SE 2020 was retailing for Rs 27,999. Globally, Apple saw strong demand across the iPhone 13 family across the world, including India. Apple CEO Tim Cook said during that earnings call, “We set all-time records for both developed and emerging markets and saw revenue growth across all of our product categories except for iPad, which we said would be supply constrained.” The emerging markets include India, where for the first time, the iPhone 13 series was launched along with the US, UK, Japan, and Singapore. All these factors contribute towards Apple's growth in the Indian market.

Although the older generation iPhone models were much in demand, the new iPhone 13 family was also well received in the country. Manish Khatri of Mumbai-based Mahesh Telcom told Business Today, “The demand is there for iPhone 13. It has become more popular since a few weeks as the company has come out with additional cashback for the same. Consumers are finding it worthwhile at the discounted price.”

The top-selling iPhone model in India was the iPhone 12 with a 40 per cent market share of the total iPhone market, it was followed by iPhone 11 having 26 per cent share and iPhone SE (2020) with 14 per cent, iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Max were on the fourth and fifth position managing 13 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, as per the numbers shared by CMR.

Despite supply chain challenges, Apple has been able to manage its supply chains through the course of the pandemic. In India, Apple has been diversifying its supplier base, working with multiple ODMs to produce its flagship iPhone models.

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